1885.J '-'^* [Agnew. 



aud harmony with all ; and, wlifin others refused to act harmoniously, 

 quietly going on in the line of duty, avoiding contention while adhering 

 strictly to what he believed to be truth and justice. His generous mind 

 revolted at all pretences and attempts to make the worse appear the better 

 reason, and he scorned all deception. 



He possessed a wonderful tact in his intercourse with the insane, which, 

 combined with unfailing good nature, and honesty of purpose, gave him 

 great power, which he always used to advance their interests in the fullest 

 manner. Calm and self-possessed in scenes where others were agitated 

 and alarmed, he exercised the happy faculty thus enjoyed, with great 

 judgment and discretion, thus evincing in the clearest manner his power 

 to direct and control. No trait of his character was more prominent than 

 his single-hearted devotion to every good word and work, and in this, and 

 in the earnestness and conscientiousness with which his work was per- 

 formed, he strove to follow the example of Him, who always went about 

 doing good. 



Biographical Sketch of the Rev. Elias R. Beadle, B.I)., LL.B. 

 By B. Hayes Agneio, M.D. 



{Bead before the American PJdlosophical Society, Feh-ruary 6, 1SS5.) 



To preserve in some tangible or permanent form a record of the life- 

 work of those, who, after liaving achieved distinction in some one or more 

 of the various spheres of human pursuits, have gone to swell the ranks of 

 the great silent majority, is a custom no less commendable than beautiful. 

 In accordance with this time-honored usage, the duty has been imposed 

 upon me, of preparing a memoir of Elias R. Beadle, late a member of the 

 American Philosophical Society. The delegated task is one sweetened by 

 the recollections of a close companionship which existed between the 

 writer and the deceased during all those years in which he wrought in 

 this goodly city. Elias R. Beadle was born at Cooperstown, Otsego 

 county, in the State of New York, on the 13th of October, 1812. He was 

 the son of Henry and Susan Squires Beadle. There wei"e only two chil- 

 dren of these parents, the subject of the present sketch, and Doctor Tracy 

 Beadle, late of Elmira, New York. 



Young Beadle was early designed for a mercantile life, and, with this 

 object in view, was placed in a store, in the town in which he was born, 

 at the tender age of thirteen. History furnishes many examples of misun- 

 derstood genius ; of fruitless attempts to turn the drift of a boy's life into 

 unnatural and uncongenial channels. 



And so with young Beadle, possessing rare powers of head and heart, 

 with an insatiate thirst for the acquisition of knowledge, it was impossil)le 

 that a mercantile pureuit, the duties of which were so routine and me- 

 chanical, should prove other than repungnant. Accordingly, in a short 



