SKETCH OF RICHARD OWEN. 261 



"he will be remembered ever as one who did honor to his country 

 and enlarged the boundaries of human knowledge." A worthy 

 monument stands to his memory over his burial place at New 

 Harmony. 



One of the most attractive of our pioneer naturalists was the 

 artist, Charles Alexander Le Sueur, who was a native of France, 

 but had lived for a time in Philadelphia, from which place he 

 came to New Harmony in the "boat-load of knowledge." But 

 before leaving France his fame had become widespread. He en- 

 joyed the friendship and correspondence of Cuvier. He had been 

 around the world as a naturalist in the celebrated voyage of 

 Pdron. He was one of the most careful of observers and had 

 singular skill in drawing and painting animals. The turtles and 

 fishes were his special subjects of study, and his pictures of them 

 are among the most lifelike ever published. He had been the 

 first naturalist to study the fishes of the Great Lakes and the first 

 to examine the great group of fishes called suckers and buffaloes. 

 He made large collections of the animals of the Wabash Valley, 

 which he sent to Cuvier, and which are still preserved in the 

 museum at Paris. A number of his water- color sketches remain ; 

 one, a small but very lifelike portrait of the old Governor Francis 

 Vigo, I have seen in Indianapolis. Le Sueur painted the drop 

 curtain of the theater at the Community Hall. It represented the 

 Falls of Niagara, and to heighten the Americanism of the scene 

 he painted by the side of the Falls that other great wonder of the 

 New World, the rattlesnake. 



When the community disbanded, Le Sueur returned to Phila- 

 delphia, earning thereafter, it is said, a precarious living by 

 giving lessons in painting. Afterward he returned to France, 

 where he became curator of the museum at Havre. Richard 

 Owen was a great favorite with Le Sueur, and I have already pub- 

 lished in these pages Owen's account of him and of the days when 

 as a boy he waded barefooted in the bayous of the Wabash to 

 gather mussel shells for the naturalist. 



Dr. Gerard Troost, a Dutch geologist, was also a member of 

 the community, and after leaving it he became State Geologist 

 of Tennessee. He made a magnificent collection of minerals, 

 which was purchased, it is said, by a society in Louisville for 

 thirty thousand dollars. 



Dr. Joseph F. Neef, a blunt, plain-spoken, honest man, was the 

 teacher of New Harmony, and he was a great favorite with his 

 pupils. He was born in Alsace, and in his early life had been 

 both priest and soldier. He was a mathematician of great ability. 

 After leaving the army he became an associate of Pestalozzi in 

 his school near Yverdun in Switzerland. He was mentioned by 

 Pestalozzi as an earnest, manly worker who did not disdain to 



