MEMOIR OF ASA GKAY.* 



By Prof. William G. Farlovv. 



Asa Gray was born ou November IS, 1810, in Sauquoit Valley in the 

 townsliii) of Paris, Oneida Oonnty, New York, and died on January 30, 

 1888, at Cambridge, ^lassacluisetts. 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, 1745, and was 

 married in 1769 to Sallie Miller. He went in 1787 to Vermont, where 

 his wife soon afterwards died; and when their son Moses, the tatjierof 

 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, IVIoses Gray was married to Koxaua 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 and 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 father 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 parcof the year in the small district school, 

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

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

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

 of 1825, his teacher, Mr. (Jharles 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 mftuber for that time. Dr. James Hadley, the professor of Ma- 

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



*Memorial address boforo tlio American Academy of Arts and Sciences; June 13, 



1S88. 



7(a? 



