William Harkness, 



1837-1903. 



The village of Ecclefechan, near Dumfries, Scotland, has long 

 been known as the birthplace of Thomas Carlyle. Henceforth 

 it must be known also as the birthplace of another rugged 

 Scotsman, Professor William Harkness, who, having come in 

 youth with his parents to the United States, became one of the 

 leading men of science of America and won for himself a posi- 

 tion of eminence in the domain of astronomy. 



Professor Harkness was a son of Rev. Dr. James and Jane 

 (Weild) Harkness. He was born December 17, 1837 ; and he 

 died Februar}' 28, 1903, at Jersey City, N. J. From his boy- 

 hood he was an active student, and had prepared himself, 

 chiefly, when he entered Lafayette College in 1854. ^^ ^^^^ 

 removal, two years later, of his parents to Rochester, N. Y., he 

 entered Rochester Universit}^ graduating thence with the de- 

 gree of A.B. in 1856. 



After leaving college he served as a reporter for the Albany 

 Atlas and Ai'gtis in the New York Legislature in 1858, and in 

 the Pennsylvania Senate for the Harrisburg Daily Tclcgi-aph 

 in i860. In this work he acquired a facility in stenography 

 which was of much service to him in later life. In the mean- 

 time he was a student of medicine and took the degree of M.D., 

 after a course of stud}- in New York City, in 1862. August i 

 of the latter year he was appointed as an aid on the staff at the 

 U. S. Naval Observatory. The exigencies of the Civil War 

 soon called him from astronomical to military duties and he 

 served as a surgeon at the second battle of Bull Run, August 

 30, 1862. A year later (August 24 ,1863) he was commissioned 

 professor of mathematics in the navy, but he continued in the 

 militant branch of the service up to 1867, when he was assigned 

 to duty at the Naval Observatory and was able to devote himself 

 chiefly thereafter to astronomical work up to the time of his re- 

 tirement from active duty in December, 1899. During this in- 

 terval of thirty-two years, however, he was away from the 



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