;88 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



June 



Circumstances and the necessity of 

 earning a living compelled him to go 

 into the wholesiale dry goods busi- 

 ness, first as a clerk and later as a 

 partner in the firm, located in the 

 ancient city of Langres. 



This old city, built by the Romans, 

 under the name of Andomatunum, 

 over 2,000 years ago, is situated on a 

 high plateau which makes the conti- 

 nental divide of the French streams 

 running to the Mediterranean, the 

 Atlantic and the North Sea. The city 

 towers above the surrounding coun- 

 try, is surrounded with high walls and 

 is therefore inaccessible to ordinary 

 railroad lines. It was once the capital 

 of the Lingones, a Gallic tribe. It 

 was a fine center when stage coaches 

 ascended to it by a winding road. But 

 the advent of the railroad, in 1856, 

 which benefited the cities of the val- 

 ley, left the proud fortress in isola- 

 tion. Business went down and the 

 wholesale dry goods firm had to close 

 its doors. Seven years later, Mr. Da- 

 dant, reduced to poverty, emigrated 

 to America with his family and set- 



LANGRES-ONE OF THE OLD FORTIFIED CITIES OF FRANCE 



tied in Hamilton, hoping to be able to principal crop of the land of his birth 

 f-ollow his old love for country life and especially of his native village in 

 and intending to grow grapes, the Champagne. 



But grapes proved unprofitable. In 

 1864 he obtained from a friend tvi'O 

 hives of common bees in ordinary 

 boxes. These he transferred first in 

 the clumsy movable-frame hives he 

 had known in Europe. A little later, 

 liaving read in the American .•\gricul- 

 turist of the success of Quinby, he 

 procured his book, then that of Lang- 

 stroth. and finally transferred all his 

 bees into Quinby hives, which he later 

 enlarged and improved into what is 

 now the Dadant hive. 



His first j-ears in America were 

 very strenuous. He had no knowl- 

 edge of English and was 47 years old, 

 at his arrival here. With uncommon 

 tenacity he decided to learn English 

 by his own effort as he had learned to 



CHARLES DADANT AT 3o. IN 1847 



CHARLES DADANT AT 55 



