Miscellaneous Intelligence. 161 



Obituaky. 



Amos H. Worthen, the distinguished geologist of Illinois, 

 died on the sixth of May last, in his 75th year, leaving behind 

 him, in the volumes of the Illinois Geological Survey, a lasting 

 monument to his memory.'* Mr. Worthen was born October 31, 

 1813, at Bradford, Orange County, Vermont, being next to the 

 youngest of the thirteen children of Thomas Worthen and Susan- 

 nah Adams. His mother was a descendant of the Adamses of 

 colonial times. In August, 1834, he went with his young wife 

 — having married in the January preceding Miss Sarah B. Kim- 

 ball, of Warren, New Hampshire — to Harrison County, Kentucky, 

 and there for a year or two taught school. In June, 1836, he 

 moved to Warsaw, Illinois, which was his home until his death, 

 with the chief exception of two years between 1842 and 1844 

 spent in Boston on account of Mormon troubles in Illinois. 

 While engaged in commercial business, he became interested in 

 the science of geology, and made large collections of fossils and 

 also of the remarkable geodes of the Keokuk limestone in the re- 

 gion. On the institution of the Geological Survey of Illinois m 

 1851, under Prof. J. G. Norwood, he was selected as his assistant, 

 and continued his labors in this position until 1855; but little was 

 published as results of the survey owing to the inadequate appro- 

 priations by the State. From 1855 to 1857 he was assistant under 

 Professors James Hall and J. D. Whitney in the Geological Sur- 

 vey of Iowa; and the large volume published in 1858 owes very 

 much of its value and interest, says the Report, " to the labors 

 of Mr. Worthen in the field, and for the loan of his magnificent 

 collection of Carboniferous Crinoids, as well as of other fossils." 

 " But for this liberality, the work would have been far less fully 

 illustrated. Such collections can only be accumulated by the de- 

 voted attention of many years; and in expressing my own in- 

 debtedness to Mr. Worthen, I may express the obligations under 

 which geology rests for this contribution, and which will be gladly 

 acknowledged by every student and votary of science." The 

 many beautiful plates of the large volume are from drawings by 

 Mr. F. B. Meek, who was afterward associated with Mr. Worthen 

 in the paleontology of his own reports. This Iowa Report with 

 its many plates of wonderful Crinoids should bring to mind the 

 name of Worthen. 



In March of 1858, Mr. Worthen took charge, by State appoint- 

 ment, of the Geological Survey of Illinois. The survey was car- 

 ried on until 1872. After this date, he continued the study and 

 care of the collections, with the title of Curator of the Illinois 

 State Museum, completing and issuing from time to time the 

 large and copiously illustrated volumes of his Report. Already 

 in 1860, advance results of his work, in connection with Mr. Meek, 

 appeared in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences 



* For many of the particulars with regard to the life of Mr. Worthen we are 

 indebted to Prof. T. B. Comstock. 



