EDWARD LEWIS STURTEVANT 



Edward Lewis Sturtevant, farmer, botanist, physician and author, 

 was one of the giants of his time in the science of agriculture. Through 

 natural endowment, industry and rare mental attainments, he accomplished 

 more than most men in scientific research by his own efforts. But, possibly, 

 he achieved even more through his influence on his fellow-workmen than 

 by his own endeavors. Rare, indeed, are the men in any field of attainment 

 who have furnished so freely as he from an inexhaustible store of information 

 unfailing aid and inspiration to those who worked with him. The happy 

 combination of these two qualities, work and ability to help others work, 

 led Sturtevant to success significant enough to make him one of the honor 

 men of agriculture in the United States. From this brief and incommen- 

 siorate tribute, we pass to a sketch of Sturtevant's active life. 



As to genealogy, the line of descent runs from Samuel, the first Sturte- 

 vant in America, who landed in Plymouth in 1642, through generations 

 living in Plympton and Wareham, Massachusetts, to Consider Sturtevant 

 who purchased a farm at Winthrop, Maine, in 1810. Here Dr. Sttirtevant's 

 father was bom but later moved to Boston, the birthplace of Dr. Sturte- 

 vant. His mother was Mary Haight Leggett from a family of fighting 

 Quakers who settled at West Farm, New York, about 1700. 



Bom in Boston, January 23, 1842, Sturtevant, as a child, was taken 

 by his parents to Philadelphia and here, with little time intervening, his 

 father and mother died. Young Sturtevant's aunt, a Mrs. Benson, became 

 his guardian, and with her the lad moved to Winthrop, Maine, the birth- 

 place of his father. His early school days were spent in New Jersey, though 

 later he prepared for college at Blue Hill, Maifie. His preliminary edu- 

 cation finished, Sturtevant, in 1859, entered Bowdoin College, to remain 

 imtil 1 86 1, when, at the urgent call of the country for college men to serve 

 in the civil strife then raging, he enlisted in the Union army. 



To classical Bowdoin, Sturtevant owed much for his ability to write. 

 Few scientists who have written so much and so rapidly, have written 

 as well. His English is not ornate but is vivid, terse, logical, happy in 



