JOSEPH TRIMBLE ROTHROCK 



Rothrockia cordifolia GRAY 



I asked my old friend Dr. Rothrock to let me 

 know something of his career, and he has told it 

 so well that the story is given as it was sent to 

 me: 



" The son of Dr. Abraham and Phoebe B. 

 Rothrock, I was born April 9, 1839, in McVey- 

 town, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania. My edu- 

 cation in early life was greatly interfered with 

 by lack of vigorous health rather than by actual 

 disease ; open air was an absolute necessity to me, 

 and throughout my entire life, I have sought the 

 ' out of doors ' as a refuge against impending 

 physical ills. 



" When sixteen, the first serious attempts at 

 education were begun, the village school being 

 the starting-point. From this I passed to Free- 

 land Seminary, in Montgomery County, now 

 Ursimus College. A year was spent in Freeland. 

 Then came a break-down in health, and restora- 

 tion was sought by taking a position as an axe- 

 man in the civil engineer corps then located in 

 what is now the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad 



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