530 WILLIAM AUGUSTUS NORTON. 



There he always found rest from his hibors in an atmosphere of 

 love not often of this world; and when, ou December 27, 1883, his 

 final summons came, suddenly as the soldier would have wished, his 

 sons and daughter were able to gather round and support their 

 mother in her afllictiou. 



When, upon his own application in 1879, his name was placed 

 on the retired list of the Array, it was universally felt that one 

 of the great men of the age had entered upon a merited rest. 

 During a long life he had always ranged himself on the side of 

 right, justice, and truth ; and no personal considerations had ever 

 hampered him when he felt that duty required a strong and de- 

 cided stand. AVith all this strength, he was one of the kindest 

 and most generous of men, and he possessed a personal magnetism 

 which never failed to win the regard of those thrown into close 

 relations with him. Indeed, the closer those relations, the stronger 

 were the feelings of admiration and love engendered. 



WILLIAM AUGUSTUS NORTON. 



WiLLTA^r Augustus Norton was born in East Bloomfield, N. Y., 

 October 25, 1810, and died, September 21, 1883, after an illness of but 

 a few daj's, within a month of the completion of his seventy-third year. 



In 1827 he entered the Military Academy at West Point, where he 

 graduated with high honors, and, in 1831, was promoted Second 

 Lieutenant of Fourth Artillery, and assigned to duty as Acting Assist- 

 ant Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Military Academy. He 

 filled this position until 1833, with the exception of a few months, 

 when he served with his regiment in the " Black Hawk War." In 

 1833 he resigned his position in the army, and was appointed Profes- 

 sor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy in the University of the 

 City of New York. This position he filled until 1839. He was after- 

 wards Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in Delaware 

 College, Newark, Delaware. Tliis post he held for ten years, when 

 he was elected President of the College, and served in this capacity 

 during the year 18o0. He then went to Brown University, Provi- 

 dence, Rhode Island, where he had charge of tlie Department of 

 Natural Philosophy and Civil Engineering. In 1852 he was elected 

 Professor of Civil Engineering in Yale College ; and in the autumn 

 of that year he entered upon his duties with a class of twenty-six 

 students, who had followed their instructor from Brown University. 



From that time, to the day of his death, he was ever found at his 



