466 



OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (POWELL.) 



with the Confederate ram Arkansas. In 1862 he 

 was attached to the De Soto; later to the 

 Wabash; and in 1864-'65 had command of the 

 ironclad Mahopac. He received command of the 

 Chippewa in 1865, and took part in the en- 

 gagement at Fort Fisher and the bombardment of 

 Fort Anderson. In 1868, while attached to the 

 Shawmut, he ascended Orinoco river to Ciudad, 

 Bolivar, and recovered from the revolutionists 

 2 steamers belonging to an American mercantile 

 company. The seizure of these vessels formed the 

 basis of the celebrated Venezuelan claims, which 

 were settled in Washington in 1895. He was sent 

 to Ireland with the Constellation loaded with pro- 

 visions to relieve the famine of 1880, and later had 

 charge of the Naval Home in Philadelphia. 



Powell, John Wesley, geologist and anthro- 

 pologist, born in Mount Morris, N. Y., March 24, 

 1834; died in Haven, Me., Sept. 23, 1902. His 

 father, a Methodist clergyman, came to this coun- 

 try from England a 

 few months before 

 the birth of his son, 

 and held pastorates 

 in Ohio, Wisconsin, 

 and Illinois. His 

 early schooling was 

 that ordinarily ob- 

 tained in a rural com- 

 munity, and his sci- 

 entific bent is said to 

 have been acquired 

 by association with 

 an old friend who di- 

 rected his attention 

 to natural history. 

 He studied at Illi- 

 nois College, and subsequently entered Whea- 

 ton College, teaching at intervals in public 

 schools. In 1854 he entered Oberlin, '/here, for 

 two years, he pursued a special course. As he 

 reached manhood his interest in studies of natu- 

 ral history increased, and he traversed portions 

 <jf Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Wisconsin on 

 foot, making collections of plants, shells, min- 

 erals, and fossils, which he placed in institutions 

 of learning in Illinois. The Natural History So- 

 ciety of Illinois elected him secretary and pro- 

 vided him with facilities for carrying on his re- 

 searches. At the beginning of the civil war he 

 enlisted as a private in the 20th Illinois Regi- 

 ment, and he received successive commissions 

 until he became lieutenant-colonel of the 2d Illi- 

 nois Artillery. He lost his right arm at the 

 battle of Shiloh, but soon afterward returned to 

 his regiment and continued in active service until 

 the close of the war. He accepted the professor- 

 ship of Geology and the curatorship of the mu- 

 seum in the Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloom- 

 ington, in 1865, which he soon resigned to accept 

 a similar appointment in Illinois Normal Uni- 

 versity. In the summer of 1867 he organized and 

 led a geological excursion of American students 

 to the mountain region of Colorado, and so began 

 a practise that has since been continued by teach- 

 ers elsewhere. He remained in the mountains as 

 an explorer after his party had returned home, 

 and in 1868 organized a second expedition with 

 geologic and geographic exploration and re- 

 search as its chief objects, the necessary funds 

 for which were furnished by educational institu- 

 tions in Illinois and the Smithsonian Institution. 

 On this expedition he formed the idea of explor- 

 ing the Grand Cafion of the Colorado, and a year 

 later he organized a party for that purpose. 

 When this work was begun it was known that 

 the Colorado river flowed for 700 to 1,000 miles 



through walls 5,000 feet high, mostly unsca- 

 lable; but the nature of the rapids, cascades, and 

 cataracts in that caiion was altogether unknown. 

 The journey lasted more than three months, and 

 his party passed through numerous perilous ex- 

 periences, living for a part of the time on half 

 rations. The success of this undertaking resulted 

 in the establishment by Congress, in 1870, of a 

 topographical and geological survey of Colorado 

 river and its tributaries, which w r as placed under 

 his direction, and for several years thereafter 

 he conducted a systematic survey of the terri- 

 tory until the Colorado valley, embracing an area 

 of nearly 100,000 square miles, was thoroughly 

 explored. This expedition, at first conducted 

 under the auspices of the -Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, was transferred to the Department of the 

 Interior and received the title of the Geological 

 and Geographical Survey of the Rocky Mountain 

 Region. At this time the study of the problem 

 for the utilization of the arid regions of the West 

 through irrigation attracted his attention, and 

 under his direction a special investigation was 

 made of the water-supply of Utah. Meanwhile 

 surveys of the West were in progress under the 

 auspices of .Ferdinand V. Hayden, Clarence King, 

 and George M. Wheeler, and their ambition to 

 include the exploration and survey of all of that 

 region led to rivalry, in consequence of which., 

 after much controversy, in 1879, the National 

 Academy of Sciences, to which the matter had 

 been referred, recommended the establishment 

 under the Department of the Interior of an or- 

 ganization to be known as the United States 

 Geological Survey. This at once went into ef- 

 fect, abolishing the Hayden, Powell, and Wheeler 

 surveys, and Clarence King became by presiden- 

 tial appointment the first director of the new 

 survey. In 1881 Mr. King resigned the director- 

 ship of the Geological Survey, and Mr. Powell 

 became his successor, continuing at the head of 

 that important work until 1894, when he resigned. 

 During his administration of the survey he aban- 

 doned the geographic subdivisions of the work 

 and substituted a classification based upon func- 

 tion, creating divisions of topography, general 

 geography, and economic geology, coordinate 

 with the divisions of paleontology, physics, and 

 chemistry, and carried the work forward until it 

 became recognized as one of the greatest scien- 

 tific bureaus ever organized. Meanwhile, in 1869, 

 he became interested in ethnology and brought 

 about the founding of the Bureau of American 

 Ethnology, which is regarded as his creation 

 Work in this branch of science had previously 

 been largely discursive and unorganized, but. 

 under his direction definite purposes conformable 

 to high scientific standards were adopted, and ho 

 attracted to its corps of investigators men of the 

 highest standing. During the years that he wawj 

 director of the Geological Survey he continued as 

 the nominal chief of the Bureau of American 

 Ethnology, and in 1892 he returned to the active 

 charge of that bureau, at the head of which }w 

 continued until his death. He made important; 

 contributions to geology, especially concerning 

 the stratigraphic structure and areal geology o j ] 

 the Colorado plateaus and the Uinta mountains'. 

 The scientific study of the arid lands of the West; 

 in relation to human industries is due chiefly to 

 Mr. Powell, and his plan for the recovery of the 

 Western arid regions by the impounding of thi; 

 waters is now universally accepted. Of his work 

 in ethnology the twenty annual reports of the bu- 

 reau while under his supervision are sufficient 

 testimony. In 1892 the French Academy award- 

 ed him the Cuvier annual prize of 1,500 franc* 



