150 RECORDS 



Joseph LeConte was born in Liberty Count}', Georgia, Feb- 

 ruary 26, 1823, and died in Yosemite Valley, California, June 

 6, 1 90 1. He was descended from Guilleaume LeConte, a 

 Huguenot, who left Rouen, France, in 1685, and settled near 

 New York City. Louis LeConte was a distinguished naturalist 

 w^ho was graduated from Columbia College, New York, in 1800, 

 and soon afterward w^ent to Georgia to take charge of a planta- 

 tion inherited from his father. There he married. Of his seven 

 children, John was the fourth and Joseph the youngest. The 

 latter, after graduating at the University of Georgia, came to 

 New^ York and studied medicine, receiving his degree in 1845. 

 He practiced medicine for only three or four years, and then 

 went to Harvard as a special student in zoology and geology, 

 receiving in 185 i the degree of B.S. 



His original purpose w^as to become a zoologist, but in 1850 

 he accompanied Professors Hall and Agassiz on a geological 

 excursion through the Helderberg mountains of New York. In 

 his own words, " It was my first lesson in field-geology. The 

 intense interest developed in my mind by the rambles, the ob- 

 servations, and especially the discussions betw^een these two men, 

 definitely determined my chief scientific work in the field of ge- 

 ology rather than zoology." 



After graduating at Harvard, Professor LeConte accompanied 

 Professor Agassiz during the 185 i study of the Florida reefs, 

 and upon his return was chosen Professor of Natural Science in 

 Oglethorpe University, Georgia. From 1852 to 1856 he was 

 Professor of Geology and Natural History in Franklin College, 

 and from 1857 to 1869, of Geology and Chemistry in South 

 Carolina College. During the Civil War he was chemist of the 

 Confederate Medical Laboratory at Columbia, S. C, as w^ell as 

 of the Nitre and Mining Bureau. In 1869 he was called to the 

 chair of Geology in the University of California, which he re- 

 tained until his death. A singular proof of his reputation 

 throughout the South at the close of the war, was the outburst 

 of a Charleston journal in 1869, asserting that the election of 

 the LeConte brothers to positions in the University of California 

 was proof of the suspected conspiracy to cripple the South in- 

 tellectually as it had been crippled materially. 



