56 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SAINT LOUIS MEETING 



ride by trolley east from Evansville. While the people of the town came, 

 as a rule, from Yankeeland, one of Mr. Purdue's grandfathers had been 

 an early settler in western middle Tennessee. His early education was 

 obtained at Yankeetown and later at the Indiana State Normal School 

 at Terre Haute, from which he graduated in 1886. In 1886-1887 Mr. 

 Purdue taught at Sullivan, Indiana. In 1887-1888 he was superintend- 

 ent of public schools at West Plains, Missouri. In 1887, at Indianapolis, 

 Indiana, he married Miss Bertha Lee Burdick, who died of consumption 

 a year later. From 1889 to 1891 he was assistant superintendent of the 

 United States Indian School at Albuquerque, Xew Mexico. Part of his 

 duties were the selection of children from the reservation for the school 

 and the rounding up of boys who had run away — a line of work that led 

 to many interesting experiences. From 1891 to 1894 he was at Stanford 

 University, from which he obtained the degree of A. B. in 1893. While 

 there he made geologic studies on the San Francisco Peninsula, and dur- 

 ing 1892-1893 was an assistant geologist for the Arkansas Geological 

 Survey with the writer, studying the southern part of the Ouachita uplift. 

 This association w^ith Purdue in the field during the summer and fall of 

 1892 was one of the pleasantest epochs in the writer's life. We were liv- 

 ing on the country, in a region but little settled at that time, and Purdue's 

 vivid description of his week's experience, when we got together at the 

 end of each week, gave an air of romance and adventure to the whole 

 undertaking. This work and that in the Coast Range Momitains of Cali- 

 fornia, both under the eye of Branner and mth his counsel, Purdue 

 counted as among the most valuable training experiences he could have 

 had, as he could not help getting somewhat of Branner's broad point of 

 view and critical study of details. In 1894, after a year of graduate work 

 at Stanford, he became a candidate for the elective position of State 

 Geologist of Indiana; but his long absence from the State had put him 

 out of touch with the political personnel of the Republican party and he 

 failed to get the nomination. Perhaps he would have succeeded if he had 

 listened to the demands of those who wished the promise of places which 

 they were not prepared to fill. The winter following he was principal of 

 the high school at Rensselaer, Indiana. Then came a year of graduate 

 work as a Fellow at the University of Chicago. 



His professorial career began in 1896, when he was elected Professor 

 of Geology at the University of Arkansas, his position after 1902 being 

 that of Professor of Geology and Mining. Here his executive ability and 

 judgment were early recognized, and as time went on more and more of 

 the administrative committee work of the university fell on his shoulders. 

 He was chairman of the Committee on Student Affairs and of the Classi- 



