WILLIAM STARLING SULLIVANT. 



1803-1873. 



" IN him we lose the most accomplished bryologist which 

 this country has produced, and it can hardly be said that he 

 leaves behind anywhere a superior." This is high praise and 

 its value is enhanced by its coming from Prof. Asa Gray, who 

 certainly knew whereof he spoke. 



William Starling Sullivant was born Jan. 15, 1803, at the 

 little village of Franklinton, then a frontier settlement in the 

 midst of primitive forest, near the site of the present city of 

 Columbus. He was the eldest of the four children of Lucas Sul- 

 livant, a Virginian, and Sarah (Starling), his wife. His father 

 had been commissioned by the Government to survey a district 

 in the Northwestern Territory lying in the centre of what is 

 now the State of Ohio, where he early purchased a large tract 

 of land, bordering on the Scioto River, and near by if not in- 

 cluding the site afterward chosen for the capital of the State. 



The early life of William Sullivant was therefore that of the 

 frontier, with its mixture of hardships and opportunities. At 

 a time when the hominy mortar and the hand-grater served to 

 furnish coarse meal for bread, and grist mills were few and far 

 apart, young William, mounted astride of a bag of wheat on 

 one horse and leading another on which also was strapped a 

 well-filled bag, was often sent on a journey along the blazed 

 bridle-path through the forest to procure flour for the family. 

 These expeditions frequently occupied two or three days wait- 

 ing for the grist, and necessitated sleeping in the mill wrapped 

 in a blanket, where he was fortunate who had a pile of corn or 

 wheat for his couch, instead of the hard floor. But all this, 

 together with the athletic sports of the frontier settlement, 

 served to give him the fine physical development which was 

 often remarked in his adult years. He was also one of the 

 party on some of his father's shorter surveying expeditions, 



