262 THE BOTANISTS OF PHILADELPHIA. 



didn't. From Charleston he and his sister went to 

 Alexander, near Augusta, Georgia. Here he succeeded in 

 obtaining a position in an academy, and taught one term. 

 One morning he went to the class-room and found a huge 

 living snake writhing about in the big open fire-place, sus- 

 pended by a stout string, tied tightly about its middle, and 

 hanging from a hook in the chimney, where the boys 

 had placed it for fun. He returned to Potsdam, and 

 on the 19th of April, 1856, an event took place which 

 made it possible for him to do the enormous and valu- 

 able work he has since done for American mycology. 

 This was his marriage to Miss Arvilla J. Bacon, who has 

 been a faithful partner in all the vicissitudes of life, and a 

 constant and painstaking assistant in his mycological 

 work for the past thirty-four years. 



In the fall of 1856 he became Principal of Canton 

 Academy. In 1863 Mr. Ellis connected himself w^ith one of 

 the public schools in Potsdam village. He was engaged there 

 until September, 1864, when he entered the United States 

 Navy at Brooklyn, New York, and spent the winter of 

 1864-5 on a United States steam-frigate of the North 

 Atlantic Blockading Squadron. He was present at the 

 bombardment of Fort Fisher, three days in December, 1864, 

 and three days in January, 1865, when the fort was taken. 

 While on the war-ship he became acquainted with a man 

 named Hale from New Jersey, who told him of the good 

 climate in the vicinity of Newfield. At the close of the 

 War, in the spring of 1865, Mr. Ellis once more returned to 

 his native town (which he has visited but once since), and 

 removed his worldly possessions to Newfield, New Jersey, 

 where he has continuously lived, twenty-five years having 



