CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 



CHAPTER I 



DESCENT AND EARLY MANHOOD 

 1827-1857 



CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN, the eminent chem- 

 ist, the broad-minded student of Nature, the lovable 

 man, ended his life of unceasing and fruitful work on 

 the 1st of September 1910, hi the eighty-fourth year 

 of his age. 



He was one of the notable group of European scien- 

 tists who, some three generations ago, found a home in 

 the United States. Conspicuous among these were 

 Engelmann the botanist, Agassiz the naturalist, Pour- 

 tales the zoologist, Guyot the geologist and physi- 

 ographer, Lesquereux the palaeobotanist and bryolo- 

 gist, Genth the mineralogist, and Goessmann the 

 chemist. 



The Goessmanns, it is said, came originally from 

 Spain, where the name was spelled Guzman. About 

 1520 they passed into Germany, hi the train of the 

 Emperor Charles V, and became seated in Hesse. They 

 were land-owners from the first, and not a few entered 

 the Church and the army. The branch from which 

 Dr. Goessmann sprang had long been settled in the 

 ancient town of Fulda, the seat of a famous monastery 

 founded by Boniface, the apostle of Germany, and 

 selected by him as the place of his burial. Joseph 



