BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 235 



George B. Emerson. 



George B. Emerson was born at Wells, Maine, then a ^^fii't of Massachusetts, September 

 12th, 1797. His father was Dr. Emerson, a well known physician, and a man of culti- 

 vation and taste. He graduated at Harvard in 1784, and was an excellent Latin scholar, 

 besides being well read in history and English literature. His house was a favorite 

 resort for the judges and lawyers who attended the sessions of the Supreme Court of 

 Massachusetts, held semi-annually at York and at Portland, and young Emerson thus 

 early became acquainted with such men as Judge Jackson and the reporter, Dudley 

 Atkins Tyng, gentlemen distinguished for their ability, as well as the refinement of their 

 manners. 



Dr. Emerson was chairman of the School Committee, and always was particular to see 

 that the master was a well educated man, and a proper person to have the charge of 

 children. His sons were sent to school during the winter season, but kept at home 

 during the summer, where the practical education that they received on their father's 

 farm, both in the knowledge which it imparted of common ways of country life, and 

 familiarity with common things, and in the information which they derived from acquaint- 

 ance with the vegetable and animal life around them in the fields, woods, rivers and sea, 

 is spoken of by the subject of this notice as being of the most valuable character. The 

 father evidently evinced great good judgment in his management of the education of his 

 boys. 



Young Emerson early familiarized himself with the trees, shrubs and plants of the 

 neighborhood, reading eagerly all books on botany which came in his way, and learning 

 what he could from his father relating to that science. He also was an interested reader 

 of books of travel and poetry, and at the proper tune was led to the study of Latin and 

 Greek, becoming familiar in certain ways with the classics before entering Dummer Acad- 

 emy at Byfield, where he went to prepare for Harvard. He entered college in 1813, 

 being in the class with Caleb Gushing, George Bancroft, S. J. May, Samuel E. Sewall, and 

 other since well-known men. His experience in college was a pleasant and profitable one, 

 varied as it so often was in the case of boys from the remote country districts, by occa- 

 sional teaching of country schools during the long vacations. While at Harvard he very 

 nearly lost his life by the experiment tried both by himself and his chum, of cutting 

 down the term of sleep from the normal quantity to four hours a day ; devoting the time 

 stolen from needed rest to over-study. A severe illness and long consequent sojourn at 

 home were the price of this ill-considered action. 



He graduated in 1817, and after recovering from another severe illness, the result of 

 overwork, accepted a position offered him of master of an excellent private school, at 

 Lancaster, Mass. Here continuous trouljlc with his eyes, brought on by inattention to 

 general health and too much study previously, was a great annoyance to him ; still his 

 school was a great success, his ability as a teacher being fully exemplified. He continued 

 at Lancaster for two years, and then accepted an invitation from President Kirkland to 

 become a tutor in the mathematical department at Harvard. Here he was again thrown 

 on terms of intimacy with some of his early college friends, Caleb Gushing, Edward Everett 

 and others, besides meeting most agreeably George Ticknor, then a lecturer on French lit- 



