THE LIFE AI^D CHARACTER 



OF 



JOSEPH HENRY.* 



BY 



JAMES C. WELLING, LL.D., 



PRESIDENT OF COLUMBIAN UNIVERSITY. 



Joseph Henry was born in Albany, N. Y., on the 17th of 

 December, 1799. His grandparents on both his father's and 

 mother's side emigrated from Scotland, and landed in this country 

 on the 16th of June, 1775, the day before the battle of Bunker's 

 Hill. At the age of seven or earlier, for what reason is unknown, 

 he went to live with his maternal grandmother, who resided at 

 Galway, in the county of Saratoga, N. Y., and his father having 

 died soon afterward, he continued to dwell for years under her roof. 

 At Galway he attended the district school, of which one Israel 

 Phelps was the master, and having there learned the rudiments 

 of an English education, he was placed at the early age of ten in 

 a store kept in the village by a Mr. Broderick. Receiving from 

 his employer every token of kindness, and, indeed, of paternal 

 interest in his welfare, the boy-clerk, already remarkable for his 

 handsome visage, his slender figure, his delicate complexion, and 

 his vivacious temper, became a great favorite, with his comrades, 

 who, according to the customs of the village store, were wont to 

 saunter about the door in summer, and to gather round the stove 

 in winter, for the interchange of such trivial gossip as pertains to 

 village life. Though released at this time for the half of each day 

 from the duty of waiting in the store that he might attend the 

 sessions of the common school in the afternoon, it does not appear 

 that he had as yet evinced any taste for books, notwithstanding the 



♦Read before the "Philosophical Society of Washington," October 26, 1878. 

 (Bulletin of the Phil. 8oc. W. vol. 11. p. 203.) 



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