JAMES POLLARD ESPY. 



1785-1860. 



METEOROLOGY is one of the youngest of the sciences. 

 Most of what is settled and systematized has been developed 

 within the memory of men who are still living. The contribu- 

 tions of Americans to research in this branch have been among 

 the most important. Of the earlier labours in this field none 

 deserve or have received wider recognition than those of Prof. 

 Espy. He may, indeed, be regarded with justice as the founder 

 of the science as at present cultivated in relation to storm pre- 

 dictions. 



James P. Espy was born in Westmoreland County, Pa., May 

 9, 1785, and died in Cincinnati, Ohio, January 24, 1860. While 

 he was still an infant his father moved to the Blue Grass region 

 of Kentucky ; but, on finding the institution of slavery antag- 

 onistic to the principles inherited from his Huguenot ancestry, 

 he removed after a few years to the Miami Valley in Ohio. 

 One of his daughters had in the meantime married a Kentuck- 

 ian of Mount Sterling, and James, remaining with this sister 

 for the sake of the opportunity, became, at eighteen years 

 of age, a student in Transylvania University, at Lexington. 

 Here he was visited in 1805 by an elder brother, who was en- 

 gaged in the practice of the law in Pennsylvania, who wrote of 

 him : " I met my brother James, whom I had not seen since he 

 was an infant. I found him at the university, where he had 

 made considerable progress in the dead languages and in gen- 

 eral science. He shows an ardent desire for knowledge, and 

 promises to be both intelligent and useful." He was graduated 

 in 1808, and went to Xenia, Ohio, where he taught school and 

 studied law. Of this part of his career, Mrs. L. M. Morehead, 

 his niece, in her Few Incidents * of his life, says that " his 



* A Few Incidents in the Life of Prof. James P. Espy, by his Niece, Mrs. 

 L. M. Morehead, Cincinnati, Robert Clarke & Co. 



196 



