CLEVELAND ABBE, 1838-1916. 



(Read May 4, 1917.) 



Cleveland Abbe, astronomer, meteorologist, philosopher, for forty- 

 six years an active member of the American Philosophical Society, 

 esteemed and honored by his colleagues in science for his achieve- 

 ments in the fields of meteorology, and the application of that science 

 to the welfare of man, is beloved and mourned by all his friends 

 for the gentle kindliness of his spirit and the unfailing aid, en- 

 couragement and inspiration flowing from his inexhaustible stores 

 of information, suggestion and boundless enthusiasm. 



More than thirty years ago it was my pleasure to enter upon my 

 ofificial life in Washington as a civil service probationer under the 

 immediate instruction and supervision of Professor Abbe, who was 

 at that time in charge of the so-called Study Room of the Office of 

 the Chief Signal Officer. Although independently, I have nevertheless 

 worked literally side by side in close association with him through- 

 out all the years that have followed our first acquaintance, and to 

 my feelings of esteem and respect for the scholar and devotee have 

 been added my afifection, for the man of gentle and generous ways 

 and a spirit refined and purified by his unselfish promotion of the 

 pleasure and welfare of all around him. Embracing the Christian 

 faith at the age of fifteen, the true spirit of Christ moulded and 

 guided his conduct ever thereafter and, although brought up in the 

 Baptist church, in his later years he enjoyed with his second wife 

 the comfort and inspiration of the beautiful ritual of the Episcopal 

 Church. 



Cleveland Abbe was born in the city of New York at the home 

 of his parents in Madison Street, December 3, 1838. and died 

 October 28, 1916, at his home in Chevy Chase, Md., after a some- 

 what protracted affliction of partial paralysis, which though limiting 

 his bodily activity, left his spirit and mental faculties wholly unim- 

 paired to the last. He was the eldest of a family of seven children. 



