Memorial Address — Edward Orton. 611 



So dominant is the note of praise for Edward Orton the man, 

 that one unfamiliar with Edward Orton the geologist and edu- 

 cator might think that it is only as the man that his name \vill 

 be remembered. Yet surely a man who was chosen President of 

 the American Association for the Advancenaent of Science, 

 President of the Geological Society of America, President of a 

 large State University, and for many years State Geologist of 

 Ohio, must have some claim to recognition as a scientist and 

 educator. 



Edward Orton was born at Deposit, Delaware County, ise'W 

 York, March 0, 1829. His father, who w^as a Presbyterian cler- 

 gyman, soon after removed to Kipley, 'New York, an agricul- 

 tural community. Prepared for college by his father, at the 

 age of fifteen he entered the sophomore class of Hamilton Col- 

 lege, and graduated in 1848. After a year of teaching at Erie, 

 Pa., he entered Lane Theological Setainary (Presbyterian) to 

 prepare for the ministry, but his eyesight failing he gave up 

 study at the end of a year and took a position as clerk on a 

 coasting vessel. In 1851 he was Instructor in l^atural Sciences 

 and German in the Delaware Literary Institute of Eranklin, 

 I^ew York. The following year he spent at Harvard University 

 in study of chemistry and botany, returning to Franklin for 

 another year of teaching. He then resumed his preparation for 

 the ministry, this time at AndoveT Theological Seminary. 

 Licensed to preach in 1845 he shortly thereafter was ordained 

 as pastor of the Presbyterian church of Downsville, Delaware 

 County, jSTew York. 



Yet with his course of study there had arisen doubts respect- 

 ing matters of belief which warred against the doctrines instilled 

 in his early life. In 1856 he resigned his pastorate to become 

 professor of ^N^atural Sciences in the ISTew York State ISTormal 

 School at Albany. Here, though not compelled te do so, he 

 avowed his change of belief from that of the Presbyterian 

 church to essentially Unitarian doctrines. In the fifties, before 

 the days of evolution, the church was controlled by narrow and 

 illiberal ideas, and most educational institutions were dominated 

 by the church. This avowal of Dr. Orton's, therefore, was 

 regarded as go serious a matter as to lose him the position which 

 he held. The succeeding six years were spent in an obscure 



