BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF JOHN KIRKPATRICK, 



LATE SECRETARY OF THE 



CLEVELAND ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCE, 

 Died, Cleveland, December 4, 1869, Aged 50 Years. 



BY COL. CHARLES WHITTLESEY. 



The brief notice of the decease of Mr. Kirkpatrick, in the 

 Herald of December 9th, was meager and unsatisfactory. 

 We now take mo. e space and amplify his personal history, 

 believing that such a character deserved a prominent place 

 in the memory of our citizens. 



Like most remarkable men, his lot fell, in early life, 

 among the scenes of toil. He was the only child of a 

 machinist, born at Glasgow, in Scotland. His father was a 

 laborer and an invalid. There are as good schools in Glasgow 

 as any where in Great Britain, where John had the usual 

 opportunities until he was thirteen years of age, having 

 been born in 1819. The necessities of the family then 

 required that he should go into the shop with his father, 

 where, as a healthy and cheerful boy, he did whatever was 

 required of him. 



A rich grain merchant, of Glasgow, after a time took a 

 fancy to the young machinist, and took him into the count- 

 ing room for about a year. This rich patron offered to adopt 

 the lad as his heir, but the parents could not give him up. 

 He was again returned to the shop, but employed all his 

 leisure time in poring over books on Natural History. 

 From the age of sixteen to eighteen he was doing the work 

 and receiving the wages of a hand in the shops. His person 

 was now robust, and his leisure hours were wholly devoted 

 to study. He had partially mastered Natural Philosophy 



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