538 PROCEEDINGS OF THE WASHINGTON MEETING 



quaintance among the younger and more numerous members of the 

 Society. The duties devolving on him from the time of his acceptance 

 of a position as teacher at Wilbraham, Massachusetts, to the day when 



he closed his office door in University Hall for the last time were such 

 as to leave small opportunity for investigation; and the results of the 

 investigations which he did make were rarely published, because of his 

 conviction that science is burdened by too much rushing into print — 

 too many one-hundred-page reports of a one-page fact — a too common 

 custom of presenting a scientific truth in the same manner as that in which 

 Van Clattercop built a church. His tastes and ambitions led him to 

 study rather than to publication, and students, colleagues, and friends 

 who came in contact with him profited by his studious habits and hon- 

 ored him for his attainments. 



His scholarly proclivities were inherited, both sides of the ancestral 

 line being marked by men of literary taste and culture. Among the 

 Marcys have been men prominent in politics — a high-sheriff, a captain, 

 a general, a governor, a United States Senator, a member of the Supreme 

 Court of the United States, a Secretary of State — men successful in busi- 

 ness and in the professions — merchants, doctors, lawyers, ministers, col- 

 lege professors and presidents, and explorers. 



Oliver Marcy was born at Coleraine, Massachusetts, February 13, 1820, 

 and died at Evanston, Illinois, March 19, 1899. He was the seventh of 

 nine children born to Thomas Marcy. His father died when the lad 

 was eight years old. His mother was so capable, energetic, and devoted 

 that she managed to rear her large family in such a manner that it be- 

 came an honor to her and a blessing to the community. Of the sons, 

 three received a college education; and later, two of them became min- 

 isters and one a college professor ; and of the three, two were at one time 

 college presidents. 



After obtaining a common school education in his native town, Oliver 

 was able l^ working during vacations and by spending some interven- 

 ing years in teaching to graduate at Wesleyan University at the age of 

 twenty-six years. The following year he married Elizabeth E. Smith, 

 of Chatham, a woman of rare qualities of mind and heart — a true com- 

 panion through their long married life — a lady who has found time and 

 strength to carry on a great work among the poor of Chicago and to whom 

 the Chicago Bohemian Mission will long be a monument. 



During his student days young Marcy chose teaching as a profession, 

 and the first position that came to him after graduation was an instruc- 

 torship in mathematics at Wilbraham Academy. After a year or two, 

 in addition to his other work, a class in geology was assigned to him, 

 although he had had little previous training in that subject — a custom 



