Francis Marion Webster. 



James Troop. 



It is always a pleasure to add one's testimouy to what naturally comes 

 spontaneously, as it were, from his many friends, when a good man is called 

 upon to lay down his implements, and leave his active life here, and pass 

 over to the great beyond. And so, as one who has been more or less in- 

 timately acquainted with Professor Webster for the past third of a century; 

 in fact, during the larger portion of his active, public life, I wish to add a 

 word of appreciation to, as well as to reiterate what has already been said by 

 others. 



The following facts have been furnished me by Mrs. Webster, his widow, 

 from an article written by Dr. L. O. Howard and printed in the Proceedings 

 of the Entomological Society of Washington. In that we learn that Professor 

 Webster was born at Lebanon, New Hampshire, August 2, 1849. He was the 

 son of J. S. and Betty A. (Riddle) Webster. He married Maria A. Potter 

 of Sanwich, Illinois, August 21, 1870. He was Assistant State Entomologist 

 of Illinois from 1882 to 1884; Special Agent of the U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture from 1884 to 1891; ^Entomologist of the Ohio Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station from 1891 to 1902; an assistant on the Biological Survey of 

 Illinois during 1903 and 1904; after which he was appointed to a position in 

 the Bureau of Entomology, U. S. Department of Agriculture, in charge of 

 Cereal and Forage Crop Insect Investigations. While located at Lafayette, 

 Indiana, 1884-1891, he was Consulting Entomologist of the Indiana Ex- 

 periment Station during the last three years. He was sent on a mission to 

 the Melbourne, Australia, International Exposition by the U. S. Depart- 

 ments of State and Agriculture in 1888, visiting other portions of Australia, 

 Tasmania, and New Zealand, returning in 1889. He was engaged during 

 part of the years 1886-1890 in the solution of the problem of the suppression 

 of the buffalo gnat in the valley of the lower Mississippi River. He was a 

 fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of 

 the Indiana Academy of Science, the American Association of Economic 

 Entomologists, the Entomological Society of America, and the Entomological 

 Society of Washington. He was a member of the Biological Society of 

 Washington, the National Geographic Society, the American Society of 

 Naturalists, and the Geological Society of Iowa. He was an honorary mem- 

 ber of the Entomological Society of Ontario and a corresponding member 

 of the Cambridge Entomological Club and the New York Entomological 

 Society. 



It will be seen at once that in order to keep up a membership in good stand- 

 ing and to maintain an active part in the studies and investigations of all of 



(81) 

 8432—6 



