Proceedings of the Society. =F 26a 
of Quercus macrocarpa, which is published elsewhere in this number 
of the JOURNAL. . 
Mr. S. A. Miller, chairman of the committee, made the following 
report: 
The committee appointed to prepare a notice of the life and services 
of Prof. Wm. Colvin, deceased, and an expression of the esteem in 
which he was held by this Society, report—— 
That Wm. Colvin was born near Dumfries, in Scotland, in 1820, 
graduated at Edinburgh in 1839, and then removed to America with 
his parents. He located at Pittsburg, Penn., and taught school in the 
western part of that State for several years. Afterward he was con- 
nected with the publication of a newspaper, and subsequently was en- 
gaged for some years as book-keeper for the firm of Hague, Hartupee 
& Co., engine builders, where he acquired a very thorough knowledge 
of machinery. About 1850 he formed an Association for the manu- 
facture of iron, and removed to Ironton, Ohio, where the company con- 
structed and operated an iron mill until about the year 1855, when he 
removed to Cincinnati. His taste led him to seek the society of the 
educated, and the friends of the advancement of science, and he at 
once became a member of the Western Academy of Sciences. He acted 
here for some time as agent of the Hanging Rock Mill, and afterward 
became book-keeper for the Marine Railway and Dry Dock company. 
During a large part of this time he was President of the Board of Edu- 
cation of Woodburn, Walnut Hills, where he resided. When this So- 
ciety was organized he became an active member, and now, as his 
voice will no more be heard in the discussion of scientific questions, or 
in the best methods of building up the association so that it will be of 
the most benefit to us and those who shall draw information from it in 
the future, we may all unite in acknowledging the valuable services he 
rendered to the Society, the unselfish zeal manifested in the treatment 
of all topics in which he took a part, and in eulogizing his kindness 
and nobleness of purpose. 
He was secretary of the Society from April, 1874, to April, 1875. In . 
1874 he was appointea to the Chair of Political Economy and Civil 
Polity in the Ohio Agricultural College at Columbus, where he re- 
mained until 1877, after which time he was engaged in examining and 
settling up books and examining mineral lands as an expert in regard 
to their value for coal and iron. 
Sometime during the last summer he went to Georgia for the pur- 
pose of exploring and developing some mineral lands. He was taken 
sick and died of typhoid fever, at Cartersville, on the 26th of October 
last. His remains were brought to this city, and interred in Spring 
Grove Cemetery. Those who carried him to his last resting place 
were Dr. R. M. Byrnes, L. S. Cotton, S. A. Miller, John B. Peaslee, J. 
S. Taylor, and Chas. A. Thompson. 
He was distinguished for his honesty and the firmness of his con- 
victions, His varied experience and habits of study made him a man 
of great general information, and his close observation of nature and 
