6 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 



caused him to be respected by all his comrades as one superior to themselves, 

 though rather incomprehensible. 



When he was about nineteen, convinced that his son would never be content 

 with the life of a farmer, his father consented to let him seek his fortune upon 

 a larger field. Accordingly, with the blessing of his parents, he started for 

 Boston in search of a clerkship, or at least for some position more congenial 

 to his nature. But no path opening to him for employment, he returned, 

 after a few days' absence, to his country home. 



At the age of twenty-one he took a final leave of his home, without a 

 penny in his pocket, but with a brave, manly, honest heart beating warmly 

 and hopefully in his bosom. He went to Greenfield, and offered himself as 

 clerk to Elijah Alvord, Esq., then Clerk of the Court and Register of Probate. 

 Fortunate beyond expression was- the poor youth in meeting this excellent man. 

 Mr. Alvord seems early to have appreciated the many high qualities possessed 

 by his young assistant. He seems, moreover, to have felt more than most persons 

 do, the responsibility that was imposed upon himself to aid such a man in his 

 career. Mr. Deane was received into the family, and there resided for four 

 years. These were some of the happiest in his life. Mr. and Mrs. Alvord 

 treated him like a son. His heart and intellect expanded under the warm 

 influences of a kindly sympathy, and a sense of gratification in the performance' 

 of more pleasant and more profitable duties. The same unobtrusive deportment, 

 and an entire faithfulness in the performance of every duty, with a rich vein 

 of genial humor underlying all his actions, marked his career. The emolument 

 was small ; but with it he was enabled not only to aid his parents, but to pay 

 for the education of a younger sister. 



During the latter part of his engagement with Mr. Alvord, that gentleman 

 permitted him, while still a clerk in the office, to become a pupil of Dr. Brigham, 

 at that time an eminent practitioner in Greenfield, and to spend a part of each 

 day in study. In 1829-1830 he attended his first course of Lectures in New 

 York, given by the well known and able Professors Delafield, Stevens, Smith, 

 Beck, and their associates. 



He received his degree of Doctor of Medicine in March, 1831, and soon after- 

 wards commenced the practice of his profession in Greenfield. He had no intro- 

 duction save his own character and mind, and those who knew him are well 

 aware that no man was ever less a trumpeter of his own fame. Many physicians 



