Iviii CARNEGIE INSTITUTION 



and he was an optimistic and affable man, who delighted to be of 

 service to others. His activities were so varied and his responsibili- 

 ties so numerous that the Carnegie Institution is but one of several 

 organizations to suffer by his loss ; yet the Institution will miss him 

 most, for he had assisted in its organization and knew all the details 

 connected with its affairs. He was a man of science, occupied chiefly 

 with geographic and bibliographic researches, but a contributor also 

 to history, and a lifelong student of mathematics. Though possess- 

 ing no capital and not engaged in business in the ordinary sense, he 

 yet held several positions of trust in business organizations. He had 

 also completed a law course, and was competent for admission to the 

 bar. An outline of his life is given below. 



He was born at Kalamazoo, Michigan, on the 23d of September, 

 1849, the earlier part of his youth being spent on a farm, and the 

 later in the city of Kalamazoo. His education began in the common 

 schools of Michigan. Two years were spent in Kalamazoo College 

 and two in the University of Michigan, from which he was gradu- 

 ated in 1870. The degree of LL. B. was received from Columbian 

 University in 1896. 



In the summer after graduation he assisted Professor Watson, of 

 Ann Arbor, in computations for the Nautical Almanac. Then for a 

 year he held the chair of mathematics in Albion College, and for two 

 years was instructor in mathematics in the University of Michigan. 

 He then availed himself of an opportunity to enter the United States 

 Coast Survey, and was a member of that corps for thirteen years. 

 He assisted Dr. W. H. Dall in surveys of the coast of Alaska, having 

 for his special function the astronomical determination of latitude 

 and longitude. Afterward, at the offices of the Survey in San Fran- 

 cisco and Washington, he aided in the preparation of the Coast Pilot 

 of Alaska and of a bibliography of the geography of Alaska. In 

 later years he compiled for the Geological Survey a dictionary of 

 Alaskan names. In 1882 he was sent to I^os Angeles, California, by 

 the Coast Surv^ey to install and conduct a primary magnetic station 

 or observatory, and he was afterwards assigned to an investigation 

 of the tides and currents of New York harbor and their relation to 

 the coastal bar and other shoals. 



In 1886 he resigned to accept a position in the United States Geo- 

 logical Survey, and he was connected with that organization until 

 the founding of the Carnegie Institution. For a number of years 

 he had charge of the northeastern topographic division, supervising 

 the mapping of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and a 



