John Wesley Powell. 377 



JOHX WESLEY POWELL, 



Founder and Director of the Bureau of Ethnology of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, for thirteen years Director of the 

 United States Geological Survey, died at Haven, Me., Sep- 

 tember 23d, in his sixty-ninth year. 



Although well known locally for his scientific work and 

 enthusiasm before the civil war, and acquiring military repu- 

 tation in that war, he first came prominently before the 

 scientific world and the wider general public by his daring 

 exploration of the great Colorado Canyon in 1869, and since 

 that date has been a conspicuous personage among American 

 scientists for his zeal for science, his eminent administrative 

 ability — shown in the organization and management of geo- 

 graphical and geological surveys and scientific bureaus — his 

 broad grasp of scientific questions, his varied activities in the 

 promotion of research in several branches of science, and by a 

 charming personality. 



He was born March 24:th, 1834, at Mount Morris, then a 

 small village in the Genesee Yalley of Western ^ew York. 

 His parents were English, his father a Methodist clergyman 

 who came to this country but a short time before the birth of 

 his son. The requirements of his profession caused many 

 changes of home, and the family moved to Ohio in his early 

 childhood ; eight years afterwards to Wisconsin ; and again, 

 when the boy was fifteen years old, to Illinois, which was young 

 Powell's home until the breaking out of the civil war, in his 

 twenty seventh year. 



The boy was an ardent lover of nature and the migratory 

 home of the family during the days of his youth and early 

 manhood gave him unusual facilities to see outdoor nature 

 under many aspects, but the conditions of his environment were 

 very unfavorable for obtaining a college or university training. 

 He was fond of roaming, a keen observer, and in his studies 

 was from the first strongly attracted to the natural sciences, 

 especially such of them as could be pursued out of doors. He 

 studied botany and geology and used every opportunity to 

 learn these and the kindred sciences. He was for a while in the 

 Illinois College at Jacksonville, later in Wheaton College and 

 still later in Oberlin College in Ohio. L^nable to attend any 

 of these continuously, he alternated between teaching school 

 and studying when and where the opportunity occurred. To 

 him there was no continuing curriculum or studies available and, 

 looking to an academic degree, he studied as the opportunities 

 offered, now while teaching in some country or village school, 

 then as a temporary student in some college, or, while roaming. 



