Fraley. | 152 (Oct. 19, 
cess. But in those days farming was far from profit- 
able; produce of all kinds bore low prices, and with 
all his zeal and industry, and leading his hands in all 
work, the results gave no profit to represent even a 
moderate interest on the cost of the farm. After fight- 
ing fortune in this way for several years but without 
immediately abandoning his farm, he entered into 
partnership with two of his cousins and engaged with 
them in commercial business. The farm was sold in 
1834 and he removed to Philadelphia, and from this 
time his real and useful history begins. 
He became a member of the Franklin Institute in 
1831, and there met a host of ardent men, the founders 
and builders up of that noble Institution. Prominent 
among these were Samuel V. Merrick, William H. 
Keating, Robert M. Patterson, Alexander Dallas 
Bache, Isaiah Lukens, Benjamin Reeves, Matthias 
W. Baldwin, Franklin Peale, George Washington 
Smith, John Wiegand, John F. Frazer, and others 
equally worthy, with whom he immediately became 
intimate in his friendship, and bound by a kinship of 
labor in the attainment and application of useful knowl- 
edge. Here he was in a congenial field, his old friend 
and preceptor, Keating, was in the forefront of the 
zealous workers of the Institute,and Mr. Cresson soon 
showed that while engaged actively in farming he had 
not neglected the text books of Philosophy and Science. 
His knowledge of mechanics and chemistry was very 
comprehensive, and was immediately made available 
