Brinton.] -""^ [Feb. 4, 



He was the oldest of seven sons, liis parents being Henry Haldeman 

 (1787-1849) and Frances Stehman (1794-1826). His father, a lover of 

 books, endeavored to foster in this, his favorite child, a desire for learning, 

 and to impress upon him its importance. His mother, a lady of attain- 

 ments, dying when he was but twelve years old, had but little influence 

 upon his after career, except perhaps that his great accuracy in detecting 

 and analyzing unusual sounds in language may have been inherited from 

 her who was an accomplished musician. His earlj^ education was pursued 

 at the local schools, supplemented by a good library at home. The favor- 

 able opportunities for the observation of nature which presented them- 

 selves he improved by forming a boyish museum containing rude anatomi- 

 cal preparations made from rabbits, opossums, muskrats, etc. , and of birds, 

 which a traveling Methodist preacher had taught him how to -stuff. An 

 extract fi'om a letter to a friend, dated 1844, contains these words, "I col- 

 lected shells on the banks of the Susquehanna long before T knew the 

 meaning of genus and species." 



In the spring of 1826, Avhen nearly fourteen years of age, Mr. Haldeman 

 was sent to the Classical Academy of Dr. John H. Keagy, at Harrisburg, 

 Pa., a gentleman of whom he always spoke as being an able thinker and 

 thorough scholar. An assistant teacher, Mr. J. T. Q. Mittag, who is yet 

 living at an advanced age, refers with enthusiasm to the precocity and 

 studious habits of his pupil at that time. 



He remained at Harrisburg two years, and then went to Dickinson Col- 

 lege, Carlisle, Pa., Avhere his taste for natural science was encouraged by 

 Prof. H. D. Rogers, subsequently the distinguished geologist. But his 

 early freedom and the bent of his own sturdy genius made the restraints 

 of a college course irksome, and after two years he left Carlisle without 

 waiting to obtain a degree and with the intention of pursuing his studies 

 alone. In fact, the lack of thorough teaching in his youth had given 

 him a rooted distrust for the opinions of the masses, and had formed 

 habits of self-reliance which forced him to be original or nothing. "I 

 cannot learn from others, I must see for myself," he would impatiently 

 exclaim, and thereupon would proceed to investigate an assertion with a 

 series of cross-examinations such as were well calculated to develop the 

 exact truth. In after years, to see some poor native under the fire of his 

 questions, when the pronunciation of an a or an u was at stake, was almost 

 painful. His horror of compilers was such that once when returning from 

 Europe, being reproached for having written such short letters "when 

 seeing so much to write about," he characteristically referred the speaker 

 to an excellent work on European travel, saying that as everything had 

 been well described there, it was not worth while to repeat it. 



Thus al the age of eighteen he began to direct his own studies and to 

 accumulate at the paternal mansion cabinets of geology, conchology, ento- 

 mology, botany and a scientific and linguistic library. As the bias of local 

 opinion rendered it necessary that all young men who were not professional 

 should go into business, he assisted his father in conducting a saw-mill on 



