MEMOIR OF EDWARD ORTON 543 



at Yellow Springs, Ohio, becoming at first principal of the preparatory 

 department, then professor of natural history, and finally, in 1872, presi- 

 dent of the institution. The following year he resigned to accept the 

 chair of geology in the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College, then in 

 process of organization under the provisions of the act of Congress of 

 1862. Before the institution was opened he was tendered and had ac- 

 cepted the presidency, and he filled both positions for eight years. This 

 was the formative period of the institution and he had much to do with 

 the shaping of its policy. It grew rapidly and, with enlarging scope, 

 became the present Ohio State University. But while his administrative 

 work gave satisfaction to his associates, it was less to his taste than 

 either teaching or scientific research, and he gladly relinquished it as 

 soon as he could do so without seeming to betray a trust. He resigned 

 the presidency in 1881, but retained the chair of geology during the 

 remainder of his life. His work as an investigator in geology was 

 carried on during his residence in Ohio, and could command only such 

 share of his time as was not consumed by executive and professorial 

 duties. 



For thirty years he served the state of Ohio, first as assistant geologist, 

 and later as state geologist. He was vice-president of the American Asso- 

 ciation in 1885, president of the Geological Society in 1897, and president 

 of the American Association at the time of his death. 



This brief outline of Orton's life, dry and statistical though it is, reveals 

 the important fact that his dominant activity, beginning in the field of 

 religious instruction, was successively transferred to secular education 

 and geologic research, so that there are three points of view from which 

 his career might appropriately be considered. OuKsinterest as geologists 

 naturally centers in his labors and influence as a man of science, but it 

 is well to recognize that these were affected in important ways by his 

 earlier and associated activities. 



In a sketch of his life which, though anonymous, is clearly autobio- 

 graphic, Orton says of himself: " Finding that his theological creed was 

 giving way under his later studies [at the Lawrence school], he sought 

 bo avert the change by more thorough investigation in this department, 

 and entered Andover Seminary to attend for a year Professor Park's lec- 

 tures on theology. The experiment was successful to the extent of arrest- 

 ing the change in his view r s, but after a few years the process was resumed 

 and ended in the replacement of the Calvinistic creed, in which he had 

 been brought up, by the shorter statements of Unitarianism. , '* 



* Historical Collections of Ohio ; Centennial edition, 1889, vol. 2, p. 59. In the compilation of my 

 account of Orton's early life I have drawn freely on this biography.— Gr. K. G. 



LXXVII— Bur.r,. Gkot.. Soc. Am., Vol. 11, 1899 



