(j6 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



quarter of section 12, township 13, range 19 east. It was a piece of wild prairie, 

 without tree or shrub, or other shelter than a sod house. He lived on it to his 

 death. It has now a comfortable stone house, noble avenues and groups of trees, 

 and rich orchards. Our friend was one of those who made the desert bloom; his 

 farm has brought forth much fruit. His wife, three years his junior, succumbed to the 

 wild conditions of Kansas in the '50s. She died and was buried on the farm in 1857. 

 He had a loving heart; companionship was a necessity to him, and a mother was 

 needed in his house. He went back to New England, and at Springfield, Mass., on 

 April 14, 1858, Joseph Savage was married to Mary Burgess, and brought her to Kan- 

 sas. She still lives on the homestead which their joint labors have made so beauti- 

 ful. All but one of his children died in childhood. The survivor, a daughter, has 

 long been the wife of Mr. Alford, an attorney of Lawrence, and the voices of grand- 

 children have added to the pleasures of the Savage homestead. In the place of his 

 dead children, there was an adopted daughter, who married and became Mrs. Martin, 

 about a year before Mr. Savage's death. 



Of the dangers during the Kansas war, of the imminent risks of the Quantrill 

 raid, when he was saved only by hiding in the corn, while his wife encountered the 

 raiders alone — of these and such events we will not speak here. 



He was a close friend of Charles Robinson, but was not himself a leader. He up- 

 held the hands of those who did lead. He was, religiously, a Congregationalist. 

 Since the days of Oliver Cromwell and Sir Harry Vane, Congregationalism has gone 

 with the support of civil liberty. Doctor Cordley has told how. when the first Con- 

 gregational society was organized among the Free-State men of Lawrence, Joseph 

 Savage held the candle while the clerk wrote the names. The incident is suggestive 

 of his whole life. He has often held the candle to encourage those who have been 

 working for truth — truth religious, truth social, or truth scientific. 



After the war, peace. For Joseph Savage, work. The physical work has made a 

 mark on the topography of Douglas county. The moral and intellectual forces he 

 exerted are much wider spread; they go beyond the State of Kansas: they reach to 

 the stars. 



There was one thing, especially, Joseph Savage believed in — education. In three 

 forms of educational work in Kansas he was especially interested: The common 

 school of his district, a noted one in Douglas county, he made a center of intellectual 

 life. For many winters, courses of lectures have been given there by men of State 

 reputation. Then, at the top of the educational column, the University, his near 

 neighbor, was a sort of pet of his. When he was abroad in the State, he said a good 

 word for the University; and its professors and students and societies were frequent 

 guests on his farm. He spoke of the students as our boys, or (mr girls. Men de- 

 voted to science were very welcome — botanists, entomologists, geologists, have oft- 

 times been visitors for days and weeks. About 18G6 or 18(57, he was with Professor 

 Mudge exploring western Kansas. 



In 1870, the third annual meeting of the Kansas Natural History Society was held 

 afc Lawrence. My honored friend, John Fraser, Chancellor of the State University, 

 was president of the society, and, in a felicitous speech, he proposed for member- 

 ship the names of Joseph and Mary Savage. There was an appropriateness in the 

 incidents in which our friend took a part. Joseph Savage had not had a collegiate 

 or any scientific training, but he had worked himself into considerable attainments 

 as a geologist, and was a member of Doctor Hayden's party in the exploration of 

 the Yellowstone Park. John Fraser was Scotch, so was Mrs. Savage, who was the 

 first lady member of the Academy. 



John Fraser was a personal friend of Hugh Miller. The subject of the evening 

 lecture at the meeting was "Hugh Miller." The lecturer was John Barrows. He and 



