ED WIN VVOR THAM D ORAN. 



Well-directed and sustained ettort is always followed by suc- 

 cess. Many times a varied preliminary preparation, with its 

 broadening educational influence, is necessary to enable one to 

 properly directed eftort; but when one is blessed with a reason- 

 able amount of talent, a large quantity of tact, together with a good 

 education, such an one is expected to arrive at distinction. 



Edwin Wortham Doran, son of Samuel C. and Eliza A. 

 Doran, first saw the light April 28, 1856, in Grayson county, 

 Kentucky. When Edwin was four years old his parents re- 

 moved to Coles county, Illinois, and purchased a farm five miles 

 north of Mattoon. His school life began at the age of eight, at- 

 tending the district school about three months each year until he 

 was nineteen, when his course as a teacher beean. He taught 

 in the district schools of the vicinity winters, farming 

 during the summers, at the same time pursuing, inde- 

 pendently, the study of the natural sciences and reading 

 some Latin. In this manner he was enabled to obtain informa- 

 tion necessary to secure a first grade teacher's certificate. 



Mr. Doran began a course of study at Lincoln (111.) University 

 which was interrupted from lack of funds. Later he attended 

 Westfield (111.) College where he spent some time, and after- 

 wards he read law for'some months. But a change having been 

 made in bis religious views, alter some preliminary preparation, 

 he began to preach, receiving a license to do so from the Vanda- 

 lia Presbytery of the C. P. Church. In that line of work he gave 



