BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF WILLIAM CUSHMAN 
AVERY. 
Condensed from notes by his sister Miss Mary E. Avery. 
ILLIAM CUSHMAN AVERY, M. D., son of Rev. 
John Avery, D. D., and Ann Paine, his wife, was 
born in Edenton, N. C., Sept. 21, 1831. 
From his earliest years he evinced a love of knowledge. 
He went to the root of all that he felt worth learning; 
the more difficult the research, the more fascinating. 
He was tutored at home by his mother, until he entered 
his teens. She recognized and appreciated his talents, 
and furthered their development. He loved nature, espec- 
ially in the animal and vegetable kingdoms. I remem- 
ber when a child seeing him pore over his volumes of 
natural history and filling a book with drawings of ani- 
mals and of birds, sketches from nature, and copied from 
these histories. 
He had such a love for drawing and painting, that at 
one period he thought seriously of making this his life 
work. He possessed great versatility of thought and 
aptness of learning in almost every branch. 
He inherited a taste for languages from his father, who 
was a graduate of Williams College, Mass.; and after- 
wards of Yale College in 1813. 
My brother, Dr. William C. Avery, graduated at Bur- 
lington College, N. J. in 1851 or ’52. His college life 
was one of great happiness; wrapped in the pursuit of 
learning he won the esteem of the professors and the 
friendship of the students, many of whom were to be 
noted men in the world. He seemed utterly free from 
self conceit, so that none manifested envy towards him. 
In regard to literary investigations he was thoroughly 
self-reliant and self-sufficient, yet showing nothing of 
arrogance towards others. 
After graduating at Burlington College, he taught 
school for several years. He then studied medicine at 
