808 



YOUMANS, EDWARD LIVINGSTON. 



man ; Superintendent of Public Instruction, 

 John Slaughter ; Chief -Justice of the Supreme 

 Court, William L. Maginnis ; Associate Jus- 

 tices, Jacob P. Blair and Samuel T. Corn. 



Population. The number of people in the 

 Territory at the close of the year is estimated at 

 85,000, an increase of 10,000 since 1886. 



Finances. The Territory has no public debt, 

 except to a very limited amount. The last ses- 

 sion of the Legislature in 1886 authorized the 

 issuing of $230,000 in bonds, divided as fol- 

 lows : For a capitol building to be erected at 

 Cheyenne, $150,000; a university at Laramie 

 City, $50,000 ; and an insane asylum at Evans- 

 ton, $30,000. These bonds, payable in fifteen 

 to thirty-five years, with six per centum an- 

 nual interest, were sold at an average premium 

 of over five cents on the dollar. The valua- 

 tion of assessed property for the year was $32,- 

 089,613.12, of which $5,741,715.46 was the es- 

 timate for railroad property. The total valua- 

 tion is $1,068,829 higher than that of last year, 

 an increase caused chiefly by an act of the Leg- 

 islature in 1886 taxing all railroad lands. A 

 tract of twenty miles wide on each side of the 

 Union Pacific Eailroad was thus placed upon 

 the rolls. The tax-levy was 2 mills for the gen- 

 eral fund, one quarter of a mill each for the 

 university fund and the bond tax fund, and 

 one hundredth of a mill for the insane asylum 

 fund. A tax of one hundredth of a mill is also 

 imposed on cattle, horses, mules, and sheep, 

 for the stock indemnity fund. 



Education. The following figures present the 

 condition of the public schools in 1866. the 

 date of the latest report : Number of school- 

 houses, 111 ; schools taught, 180; male pupils, 

 2,572; female pupils, 2,416; teachers, 210. In 

 September the Territorial University provided 

 for by the Legislature of 1886 was formerly 

 opened at Laramie City. 



Charities. The building for the Territorial 

 Insane Asylum, at Evanston, was nearly com- 

 pleted at the close of the year, and will afford 

 accommodations for the insane who are now 

 cared for by the different counties and by indi- 

 viduals. The Institute for the Education of 

 Deaf-mutes has been located at Cheyenne, and 

 was ready at the close of the year. 



The Capitol. The Capitol is the fourth public 

 building in course of erection by the Territory 

 during the year, all of them being provided for 

 by the Legislature of 1886. It is of cut and 

 dressed stone, and is of ample proportions. At 

 the close of the year it was sufficiently com- 

 pleted for use by the incoming Legislature. 



Mining. Gold, silver, copper, and iron are 

 found in the mountainous sections of the Terri- 

 tory, but not in quantities sufficiently rich to 

 make mining profitable ; some mines are worked 

 on a limited scale, but their total annual prod- 

 uct is not known. Deposits of coal under- 

 lie a large part of the Territory. 



Stock-Raising. The interests of cattle-grow- 

 ers have suffered during the year from low 

 prices, and from losses during the severe win- 

 ter of 1886-'87. The number of cattle returned 

 as assessed for the year, 753,608, shows a large 

 decrease from the assessment of 1886. Their 

 assessed value, $10,186,360, is nearly one third 

 of the entire valuation of the Territory. More 

 horses and sheep were assessed in 1887 than 

 ever before. 



Oil. Large developments have been made 

 during the past few years, in the oil-fields. 



Railroads. The number of miles of railroad 

 assessed in 1887 was 669-64, of which 498-54 

 miles were owned by the Union Pacific Rail- 

 road, 92-34 by the Oregon Short Line, and 

 78;76 by the Wyoming Central. The last line 

 is in process of construction westward through 

 the central part of the Territory. 



Y 



YOUMANS, EDWARD LIVINGSTON, an Ameri- 

 can scientist, born at Coeymans, Albany 

 County, N. Y., June 3, 1821 ; died in New 

 York city, Jan. 18, 1887. His father was 

 a farmer and wagon-builder, whose independ- 

 ence and gifts of clear, incisive expression 

 made him one of the leading men in the neigh- 

 borhood. His mother, a woman of energy 

 and capacity, had been a teacher before mar- 

 riage. In her blood was a Celtic strain, which 

 came out distinctly in the vivacity and enthu- 

 siasm of her son. To pay the subscription to 

 the local circulating library he planted a po- 

 tato-patch in a corner of his father's farm. 

 This local library contained not more than 

 four hundred volumes, of which the only work 

 of science was Buffon's " Natural History," 

 which young Youmans read and reread. In 

 his fourteenth year he was attacked with a 

 malady of the eyes, which afflicted him more 

 or less throughout his life. He persisted in 



reading and study when his eyes demanded 

 rest, and his imprudence resulted in so serious 

 an aggravation of his case that at seventeen 

 his vision was almost totally lost. He was 

 obliged to relinquish his post as teacher in a 

 common school and his purpose of entering 

 college. Until he was thirty he remained 

 practically blind. Finding the services of the 

 local oculist of no avail, in 1840 he went to 

 the metropolis for treatment in the eye in- 

 firmary. He remained there several weeks 

 without improvement, when he was informed 

 by the physician in charge that his case was 

 hopeless. He left the infirmary only to go 

 from one oculist to another for examination. 

 Among these, Dr. Elliott gave him most en- 

 couragement, and to the care of this skillful 

 physician he committed himself, and the first 

 moderate fee was the only one the doctor ever 

 accepted during years of constant treatment. 

 Until 1851 Mr. Youmans did not measurably 



