226 DAVENPORT ACADEMY OK NATURAL SCIENCES. 



ness, with all the powers of a g-ifted mind to do his part in kindling 

 and elevating- the torch of science in this land of his birth. When 

 the corner-stone of that commodious building, the first Academy of 

 Sciences erected on the west bank of the Mississipjii, — and whose 

 erection is largely due to his persevering efforts — shall be again laid 

 bare for the construction of a grander edifice, from that recess will 

 be unsealed the record of a young life literally given to science, and 

 those yet unborn will bend with silent and reverent regard over the 

 time-stained records that tell of the devotion, self-sacrifice, and 

 earnest work of the youngest, the most efficient, and noblest of the 

 founders of the Davenjjort Academy of Sciences. But noto from our 

 piesent stand-point, in the year of grace, 1882, let us take a brief 

 Ijackward glance at the various elements that have conspired to 

 mould the character we here delight to honor. 



From hereditary sources we all alike derive the substantial ele- 

 ments, mental and physical, that form the basis of our individual 

 characters. This inalienable legacy that thus comes down to us, im- 

 possible to trace to its ultimate origin, represents the combined re- 

 sults of organism, moulded by all the circumstances through which 

 it has passed, and as we have a right to believe directed by an all- 

 wise Providence to lieneficent results. 



So, clearly in the subject of our sketch, the ability to think, to (jr- 

 ganize, to accomplish results; nay, even the thirst for knowledge, 

 the love of truth, the sense of justice, and the yearning to do good 

 to his fellow men, was an inheritance to which in the brief interval 

 of a fleeting life, he added what he could, and so closed uj) the ac- 

 count. But aside from these essential, though incompiehensible 

 elements largely determining the character of our departed friend 

 and associate, there were evident circumstances attending his advent, 

 that must needs have exerted a marked influence on his mental de- 

 velopment. 



The unj)aralleled discoveries which maikcd the early periods of 

 the nineteeiith century, were in its advancing epochs bearing fruit 

 in improved means of living, vastly increased appliances for in- 

 vestigation, and a more profoundly practical philosophy. Such a 

 condition of things working on an appi-eciative and prepared mental 

 endowment, ensured results such as we shall have occasion to note 

 in the subject of our biographical sketch. More than this, a family 

 atmosphere in which the freest movements of natural bias were not 

 only allowed but encouraged, ever surrounded the growing boy with 

 an unfailing inspiration, and while in other directions apathy and 



