PROCEEDINGS OF THE OHIO ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, 177 



Over the grave of Captain Symmes in the old burying ground 

 at Hamilton, Ohio, was placed a monument consisting of a shaft 

 bearing a hollow globe, which' may still be found by the curious. 



Fortunately the reputation of Cincinnati as a literary and 

 scientific centre rests on something more substantial than the 

 work of this erratic geophysicist. Indeed very important work 

 in Geodesy and Astronomy was done there at a very early day 

 by Col. Jared Mansfield, an officer of the Engineer Corps of the 

 U. S. Army who, having been appointed by Thomas Jefiferson 

 Surveyor General of the Northwest Territory, established a 

 small observatory at his residence in Cincinnati for the purpose 

 of determining latitude and longitude and establishing the pri- 

 mary meridian on which is based the admirable system of land 

 surveys covering the great north-west. This observatory was 

 one of the very first in the United States and during several 

 years important observations were made there. Col. Mansfield's 

 residence in Ohio was only temporary though it covered nine 

 years, from 1803 to 1812. Our city of Mansfield was named in 

 his honor and his son, E. D. Mansfield became one of the most 

 widely-known citizens of the State, famous as an author and 

 publicist. 



From among many Cincinnatians quite worthy of consid- 

 eration I select a quartet of the most brilliant, who enjoyed a high 

 reputation among their peers in both Europe and America. 

 These were John Locke, Ormsby M. Mitchell, Daniel Vaughan 

 and J. B. Stallo, whose names, no doubt, have an unfamiliar 

 sound to many members of the Academy. The earliest in point 

 of time was Locke; the latest, Stallo, and although their joint 

 lives covered somewhat more than a century, for nearly twenty 

 years the four were contemporaneous residents of Cincinnati. 

 John Locke was a native of Maine, born in 1798. Graduated 

 from Yale College in 1819, he became geologist to a government 

 exploring expedition and after work in the territory of the Ohio, 

 he settled in Cincinnati where he spent the remainder of his 

 life and where his most important work was done. He was ap- 

 pointed professor of chemistry in the Ohio Medical College, but 

 while an ardent student of chemistry, botany and geology, 



