Albert Nelson Prentiss. 
GEO. F. ATKINSON. 
WITH PORTRAIT: PLATE XIX, 
Albert Nelson Prentiss was born May 22, 1836, at Cazeno- 
via, Oneida county, N. Y. His father was a farmer, and his 
grandfather was an Officer in the war of 1812, dying in the 
service. 
_ His early education was gained in the public schools, and 
m the Oneida County Seminary of his native village. In 
1858 he entered the Michigan State Agricultural College and 
Was graduated in 1861 with the degree of B.S. His class, 
lumbering seven members, was the first to graduate from 
that institution, and the entire class, responding to their 
‘ountry’s call at the outbreak of the civil war, immediately 
talisted in the service of the army. Albert N. Prentiss was 
enlisted in the engineering corps at Battle Creek, Micn., an 
Signed to special signal service duty in the army of the 
west. After four months service, principally in the field, in 
the interior of Missouri, his corps was disbanded in conse- 
| tag of changes in the organization of the army which fol- 
_ Wed the removal of the commanding general. 
In 1 862 he was elected associate principal of the Kalama- 
o Mich., high school, which position he resigned during 
a following year to accept the instructorship of botany and 
Cay culture in his alma mater, the Michigan Agricultural 
ollege at Lansing. He received the degree of . from 
the ome institution in 1864, and in 1865 he was promoted to 
; full Professorship of botany and horticulture. __ 
ee from the duties appertaining to the educational fea- 
ug and under his direction the face of the campus soon 
ged from the formal association of straight 
igan Asicaltan! 
Among hij “aes ‘ 
§ his pupils in botany at the Mich st 
lege are the following men whose lives have been 
In . 
er Chosen fields: C. E. Bessey, pro 
iversity of Nebraska; W. P. Wilson, profes 
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