THE WENT AMERICAN SUIENTIM 
HEMAN CHANDLER ORCUTT. © 
HEMAN CHANDLER ORCUYT? was born in Monson, Mass., the 
ninth of September, 1825. arly in life he removed with his 
father’s family to Woodstock—and later to Hartland, Vermont, 
where his youth and prime of life were passed in a typical New 
England farm life. On the first day of the year 1852 he married 
Miss Eliza Eastin Gray, the daughter of Dr. Joseph Gray, then 
of Woodstock, Vermont, and they became the parents of five 
sons, three dying in early childhood. 
In 1864 he enlisted in Company C, Sixth Brigade, Vermont 
Volunteers, and served in the Union ranks until the close of the 
Civil War, participating in Cedar Creek battle. 
The love of nature was a prominent trait in his character, and 
he devoted much time to the wild flowers of Vermont, and culti- 
vating as many useful and beautiful plants as he could maintain. 
The rural and horticultural literature of those days also received 
careful perusal and was occasionally enriched by his pen; while 
his wife contributed to the leading literary journals under the sim- 
pre euature, “H.K.’’ 
On the last day of 1878 he left the Green Mountain State, with 
his wife and two sons, John Heman Orcutt and the writer, arriv- 
ime san Diero, California, thejesth of January, 1879. The 
transition from the snow clad hills of Vermont to the perennial 
summers of California was thoroughly appreciated, and many dis- 
advantages resulting from changed surroundings were borne with 
patience. He was naturally a strong man, of active temperament, 
with an inventive, investigating mind. While his New England 
farm life inclined him to agricultural pursuits, yet an inherent 
mechanical taste led him into the building profession for a time. 
In August, 1879, with C. K. Smith, my father and I took the 
