MEMOIR OF ASA GKAY.* 



By Prof. William G. Farlow. 



Asa Gray was t)ora ou November 18, 1810, ia Sauquoit Valley iii the 

 towuship of Paris, Oneida County, New York, and died on January 30, 

 1888, at (Cambridge, Massachusetts. On the paternal side he was de- 

 scended from a Scotch-Irish family who emigrated to this country in the 

 early part of the last century. His grandfather, Moses Wiley Gray, 

 was born at Worcester, Massachusetts, December 31, 174:5, aud was 

 married in 17G9 to Sallie Miller. He went in 1787 to Vermont, where 

 his wife soon afterwards died; aud when their son Moses, the father of 

 Asa Gray, was eight years old, the father and son moved still farther 

 west, to Sauquoit Valley, then almost a frontier settlement. Sixteen 

 years later, Moses Gray was married to Roxana Howard, a daughter of 

 Joseph Howard, of English descent, who, leaving his home in Massa- 

 chusetts, had settled in Sauquoit Valley the same year as the Gray 

 family. Of their family of eight children, five sons aud three daughters, 

 Asa was the first-born. 



When a boy he assisted his father in the smaller duties connected with 

 his farm and tannery ; but at an early age he showed a much greater 

 fondness for reading than for farm work, and the lather soon came to 

 the conclusion that his son would make a better scholar than farmer. 

 Until he was about twelve years old the only education he received was 

 what could be obtained for a partof the year in the small district school, 

 and in the small private school at Sauquoit taught by the son of the 

 parish pastor. He was then sent to tbe grammar school at Clinton, 

 New York, where he remained for two years ; and when, in the autumn 

 of 1825, his teacher, Mr. Charles Avery, accepted a place in Fairfield 

 Academy, young Gray followed his instructor to that place, where for 

 four years he pursued elementary mathematical and classical studies. 

 Connected with the Fairfield Academy was a medical school which 

 enjoyed a high reputation, and was attended by two hundred students, 

 a large number for that time. Dr. James Hadley, the professor of Ma- 

 teria Medica and Chemistry in the Medical School, also gave some in- 



*Meiuorial address before the American Academy of Arts and .Sciences; June 13, 



1888. 



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