rNCP.EASE A. LAPHAM, LL. D. 



BY P. R. HOY, M. D., KACIN-E. 

 PKrSIDENT OP THE ACADEMY. 



It becomes my duty, as chairman of tlie committee appointed for tlio purpose, ot 

 report on the life and labors of I. A. Lapham, LL. D., one of the organic members 

 and the first Secretary of our WiscoTisin Academy of Sjiences, Arts, and Letters. 



I perf )rm this duty with greater willingness, and, indeed, with a mournful pleasure, 

 rememl)ering Dr. Lapham as a long and well-trieil friend. Engaged in similar sci- 

 entifij pursuits, there sprang; up between n.s a close friond.ship, cemented by eympa- 

 thy, which lasted nearly thirty years, until his death. 



I shall not attempt a complete chronological history of his life, as that has already 

 been so well done by S. S. Sherman for the Old Settler-s' Club of Milwaukee, but 

 shall speak principally from personal knowledge, merely introducing a short sketch 

 of his early life by way of preface. 



Increa.=!e Allen Lapham, wIiobg memory we wish to honor, was born of Qu.iker 

 parents, in Palmyra, Wayne Co., N. Y., on the 7th of ]\Iarch, 1811. After rectiv- 

 ing a common school training he bggan the study of Engineering under liis father's 

 instrnclions. 



When but sixteen years of age he went to Louisville and was employed on the 

 ship cnnal around the Falls of the Ohio. 



At this early date he began the study of Botany, Conchology, and Geology, which 

 he prosecuted as a youthful lover of nature with the enthusiastic zeal which charac- 

 teriz?d his work during all the years that followed, up to the hour of his death. 



While in Louisville he wrott his first scientific paper entitled, " A Notice of the 

 Louisville and Shipping-Port Canal, and the Geology of the Vicinity," wliich vvaa 

 published in the American Journal of Science and Arts. 



This first offering contained manv new facets and was highly commended by the 

 elder Silliman as a valuable contribution, coming as it did from a mere boy, what 

 might not be expected from the pen of riper years, wider experience and greater 

 knowledge? 



When the canal was completed, young Lapham became assistant engineer of the 

 Ohio canal, which position he held until his appointment in 1833 as Secretary of 

 the State Canal Board of Commissioners, when he moved to Columbns. Here ho 

 found time to devote to his specialty, Botany, and formed the acquaintance of many 

 eminent scientific men, among them Prof. J. B. Kirtl.md. 



In the spring of 1836 he landed at the straggling village of Milwaukee, in the 

 then Territory of Michigan, where he continued to live and study for the remaining 

 thirty -nine years of his active and useful life. 



