'68 Kansas Academy of science. 



him." And she had a right. We too are proud that Joseph Savage, honored this 

 society by 20 years of membership, service, and sympathy. 



The Douglas County Horticultural Society had in Mr. Savage an active member, 

 and to this society he read useful papers, notably one in December, 1877, on the 

 soils of eastern Kansas, with the loess of the eastern counties as his principal illus- 

 tration. In this paper he pointed out that the loess was especially good for straw- 

 berry growth, and that, as with its namesake in the Rhineland, it is the proper 

 home of the grape vine. On the other hand, he showed that pear blight was devel- 

 oped among the trees of the loess. 



There are many personal reminiscences we might give, but this is not the place. 

 We want to record our appreciation of our departed friend while he was with us, 

 and to express our sympathy with his bereaved partner, who says in a recent com- 

 munication that he "' was laid away on New Year's day, 1892. A happy new year to 

 him, and the saddest and loneliest that ever came to me.'" May it be hers and ours 

 to have a glad reunion. 



E. P. AVEST, 



BY S. W. WILLISTON. 



Judge E. p. West was born in Simpson county, Kentucky, November 14, 1820. 

 His early years were spent upon a farm, and the greater part of his education was 

 obtained at the Russellville Academy. He came to Cass county, Missouri, when 20 

 years of age, and there devoted himself to the study of law, shortly afterward enter- 

 ing upon its practice. For 30 years he was engaged in the practice of his profes- 

 sion, serving meanwhile as the judge of the court of common pleas of Cass county, 

 and, during the Buchanan administration, as United States district attorney for 

 New Mexico, his commission having been signed by Daniel Webster. During the 

 War of the Rebellion, he was captain in the Missouri State Guards. 



About 1870, he removed with his family to Kansas City, Mo., and practiced his 

 profession there successfully for several years. He then began to turn his attention 

 toward scientific subjects, especially geology and archfeology. He was one of the 

 founders of the Kansas City Academy of Science, and, for a while, in conjunction 

 with Mrs. Judge Krekel, edited a monthly magazine devoted to scientific subjects. 

 His patient examination of the works of the mound builders along the Missouri river, 

 attracted much attention. About eight years before his death, he became connected 

 with the Kansas University, a position which he held uninterruptedly to the day of his 

 death, which occurred January 26, 1892, from heart failure, in conjunction with ills 

 incident to old age. 



Personally Mr. West was, in many respects, a man of remarkable character, with 

 a tireless energy and an indomitable will. At an age when most men are content to 

 lean upon others, he still asserted, in an undiminished degree, the self-reliance and 

 independence which had always characterized him. When past 70 years of age, he 

 spent a season in the fossil fields of western Kansas, camping out alone, under the 

 blHzing sun and severe storms. Mr. West never published much. A few papers in 

 the proceedings of this Academy, and in the Kansas City Record of Science, are about 

 all, but he has left an unimperishable monument in the results of his tireless and 

 patient labor in the geological department of the State University. To him, more 

 than to any one else, is due the credit of the building up of the collection of fossils 

 of the State in the museum of the University, a collection unequaled elsewhere, and 

 one of which the State may be justly proud. 



