VI BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



there, summer and winter.* But he had interests with William in 

 Georgia, and ultimately removed there to a plantation of his own in Lib- 

 erty County, where, in the open life of the South, his sons (or at any 

 rate all but William, who died at the age of thirty) and at least one of 

 his daughters! developed a strong taste for the study of nature, which 

 one can hardly believe was not from some predilection or guidance on 

 their father's part. However that may be Louis, the elder, who lived, 

 married and died in Georgia, succeeding there to his father's estates, was 

 a man of unusual attainments for those days in many departments of 

 science, and although he never published any of the results of his studies 

 he contributed freely to the labors of others. He studied medicine in 

 his youth with Dr. Hosack. He established on his plantation in Georgia 

 a botanical garden, which was especially rich in bulbous plants from the 



* "William and John Eatton must have removed to Georgia some time before 

 the breaking out of the American Revolution, but in after life they seem to have 

 divided their time between Georgia and New Jersey. They are said to have car- 

 ried on jointly a profitable lumber business with the West India Island from their 

 lands at ' Sans Souci,' on the Ogeechee River, about sixteen miles south of Savan- 

 nah. . . . John Eatton . . . after living with his brother at Sans Souci, in Georgia, 

 purchased extended lands adjacent tp the southern boundary of the 'Midway 

 Settlement' in Liberty County, about twenty miles south of Sans Souci. The exact 

 date of this purchase is not now known. There is no evidence that he adopted 

 any learned profession, or had any occupation beyond that of taking care of his 

 property." — Family records by Prof. LeConte Stevens. 



f "Ann LeConte . . . was specially characterized by her ardent love of nature, 

 her keen appreciation of art, so far as opportunities of culture in this were pre- 

 sented, her high sense of duty, and her devotion to religion. Her love of nature 

 was an inheritance, and showed itself especially in her fondness for flowers, which 

 was early imbued by her father. Wherever her home was made a flower garden 

 was to her an indispensable adjunct, and the zeal and industry applied in its cul- 

 tivation were never unrewarded. . . . That her mind was naturally of mathe- 

 matical order was shown by her precision in music, and her clear conception of 

 form, of proportion, of number. Her advancement in this department of study 

 in girlhood was uncommonly rapid; without further development it was only 

 possible for such tendencies to continue presenting themselves through life with- 

 out resulting in the accomplishment of any special work that might command 

 public recognition. When the homestead in Walthonsville was contemplated she 

 studied architecture and landscape gardening, and not a single feature in the plan 

 of the house and its surroundings was decided without her scrutiny, criticism and 

 decision." 



One of her children, Walter LeConte Stevens, from whose " family records" I 

 have taken the above and previous notes, a professor in the Packer Collegiate In- 

 stitute of Brooklyn, N. Y., and who graduated in 1868 from the University of 

 South Carolina, has contributed also to the renown of the family name in science 

 by articles mostly on physiological optics published in the A mericaji Journal of 

 Science. Several of his educational addresses have also been published. 



